System of tabulating cars.



PATENTED-MAR. a, 1908.

0. F; MULLER, F. M. DRISGOLL & R, JQBARRY.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS. APPLIOATION FILED MAY 18, 1907. i

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No. 881,019. 'P'ATBNTVED MAR. a, 1908,

- 0.1. MULLER, F. M. DRISGOLL & R. J. BARRY.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS.

APPLICATION FILED IAY18, 1907.

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UNITED STATES PATEN CHARLES F. MULLER, FLORENCE M. DRISCOLL, ANDRICHARDJ. BARRY, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS.

\ Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 3, 1908.

Application filed May 18, 1907. Serial No. 374,471.

To all whom it may comern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES F. l.\/IULLER, FLORENCE M. DRIsooLL, andRIOHARD J. BARRY, citizens of United States, residing at Oakland, in thecounty of Alameda and State of California,-have invented new and usefulImprovements in a System of Tabulating Cars, .of which the following isa specification.

Our invention relates to a system for keeping a complete record of thearrival, depart ure, location and disposition of freight cars,especially in yards where the number of cars handled daily is very'great. It will be manifest however that the system which forms thesubject of the present application is capable of use in other lines ofwork where there is continual movement of the articles to be kept trackof the principle of the plan being the use of the number of the car,coach, or other numbered article it is intended to keep records of, asthe key of an indexing system.

In the handling of freight cars in large yards it has always been asource of great trouble, time and labor to keep anything like a properrecord of the cars which are constantly arriving. A train of cars withperishable goods may arrive any time during the day or night. Some ofthe cars are for local use and are held; some have to be diverted toconnecting lines; or rushed to another station. Every hour such a car isdelayed may mean and often does mean, serious loss to the company. Thenthere are heavy consignees who want their goods delivered promptly andwith thousands of cars in a yard with miles and miles of tracks, it ismanifestly no easy job to know any minute just where such and such a caris, who it is for, what it contains, its destination, 620.

We have devised a system which after a thorough test in one of thelargest yards in the United States has proven unqualifiedly andastonishingly successful and has enabled one man to do. with accuracyand speed what was only poorly and laboriously done before by the oldsystem. This old system is still in vogue on other lines and is costingthose lines heavily for the losses occasioned through movement offreight. Like losses are almost entirely done away with by our system.

Our invention will be more fully explained delays and misdirections inthe by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is aperspective view of the device. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the forms ofcards.

As is well known, all freight cars are numbered and bear the name orinitial of the line to which they belong. In the keeping track of cars,various cars are known by their initial and number; thus indicates aSouthern Pacific car of that num- In the practice of our invention weproceed as follows: In order to keep a continual and perfect record forready reference of cars in the yard, two separate filing cases should bekept. The first or yard case containing cards showing cars actually inthe yard, and the second or storage case holding cards representing carswhich have left the jurisdiction of the office of which the record isbeing kept. The yard case is essentially the important one. Both casescontain index cards 2 having consecutively numbered visible tabscorresponding to the terminal figure, or the two terminal figures of thenumbers of cars to be recorded, said consecutively numbered cards beingheaded by an index card A preferably of different color from the restand bearing the initial figure of the number of the cars to be kepttrack of. Thus as shown in Fig. 1 the initial card A of the series bearsthe figure 8 representing the initial figure of the number of a car,while the succeeding cards 2 are numbered ((017)) (02, ((037!) &CH(99]7' instance car No. 88,986, would be indexed by placing a cardbearing that number and the initial of the car in the column headed byfigure 8 and behind the terminal card 86; if we had car No. 886, itwould go behind the same 86 terminal card and in front of, the card forcar No. 88,986. Ordinarily in order to keep track of cars of allnumbers, at least nine columns or drawers of cards would be employed,differing only from each other in the initial figure of the index card;thus column or drawer one would be headed by No. 1 initial card,corresponding to card A Fig. 1; column two would be headed by No. 2,initial card, &c.

The nature of the record that is kept of every car varies according tocircumstances; some cars requiring different or additional records towhat other cars require, as will No.88,986, S.P.,

be pointed out hereinafter. When a car arrives or departs a history ofthis car is entered upon a card 3, such as shown in Fig. 2. These cardsare ruled in vertical columns with all the necessary incoming andoutgoing data, such as Where from, Date of Consignment, Destination,Contents, Oonsignee, Train, Conductor, Date of arrival, Time, &c. Thenecessary entries are made on this card from the way-bill and the numberand initial of the car placed on the upper left hand corner of the card;thus No. 88,986, S. P.

y In addition to the incoming data above noted, it is essential to knowthe location of any car in the yard at any time, especially if themovements of the car are to be hurried, or if the car is to remain anylength of time in the yard. Therefore in addition to the above data, Ihave this record card 3 pro vided with a track location chart as shown,in which there are three columns of figures, from 1 to 31, correspondinto the days of the month, with a space be ore each figure for the monthto be written in, and with a space after each figure for the tracknumber. Thus as shown in Fig. 2, the location of car No. 88,986, onthree consecutive days is found to be as follows: Jan uary 21-, track34; January 22, track 42; January 23, ferry. This card is then filedaway in the yard case in the column headed by initial card 8, and behindthe terminal card 86 as before described. When this car leaves the yardits card is taken out of the yard case and put in the storage case; bythus always adding cards for such cars as arrive and withdrawing cardswhen trains go out, the yard case must always accurately represent thecars in the ard. y WVhen it is desired to attract special attention to acar it can be done by using removable indicators or clips 6 as shown atFig. 1, and by using different colored. or different shapes ofindicators, a number of valuable segregations can be made: Thus a brassindicator to indicate time; that is time of arrival; a copper indicator,to indicate contents; a steel indicator to indicate consignee; a blackindicator to indicate destination. The use of these indicators is animportant feature of the invention, because it enables one to tell at aglance all the cars in the yard which are consigned. to any individualheavy shipper, or which carry any special class of goods, or which areintended for any particular destination. Of course the number andcharacter of these indica tors can be varied without limit. Theseindicators are used in conjunction with a key card 4 which is placed infront of each drawer or column of cards in the yard set; said key cardsruled to indicate various classes of merchandise and time, A. M. and

P. M. as indicated. By using these key cards in conjunction withindicators of different colors, a complete chart can be made to show thetime of arrival of perishable freight, or segregations of differentkinds of freight, names of consignees, as well as to group cars bydestination. For example, all brass indicators in a straight line behind2 oclock, A. l\/ on key card will show the cars which arrived at thattime, and similarly with other indicators in appropriate lines to showconsignees, perishables, 850.. By this means a ready reference can bekept on delays, particularly consignments of large shippers, certainclasses of freight, or a number of other points of information whichdifferent stations require.

Zbllow-up-plaw-Jn order to insure fast movement of perishable freightand special order cars, we make a set of guides as 5, shown in Fig. 4 torepresent the hours of the day. A card is made for each car, and thiscard is placed behind the guide which represents the time of arrival ofthe car. The yard master or switch foreman is then notified to rush thecar, such order being noted upon the card. Every two hours the cards arelooked over in the section representing two hours back, and a freshorder given to move the car, again noting the time, and when, and towhom the order was given. The card is then moved into the sectionshowing the last hour when the rush order was issued. By this meansspecial cars will be always under a strict surveillance. A key card canbe used for the front of the drawer showing segregations by indicatorsof different classes of freight, consignee, destination, &c., asillustrated in the general system.

Hush, divert and special 0rdcrs.For the better working of this branch ofthe railroad freight business, a separate card system should be kept. Asmessages or letters are received, relating to the movement of cars,cards are made out, white for rush, blue for divert and salmon forothers. These cards are numbered in the upper left hand corner as beforedescribed, and sorted behind the nine sets of guides running from 00 to99. Only slight details such as shown on the card in Fig. 3 are given,but the card is numbered by a duplicating numbering stamp correspondingto the number on the message or letter. The message or letter or otherorder is filed away numerically.

On the arrival of a train the conductors train tag is checked againstthe rush and divert case, and in the event of finding a card in thiscase corresponding to the number of a car arriving on the train, themeager details on the card makes it necessary to look up the originalorder which has been filed away numerically as just stated. This insuresagainst any misdirection of the car, which frequently occurs by reasonof some clerk or some one unfamiliar with the original message,misreading the abbreviated directions.

By this system, the clerk or whoever looks up the car, simply finds acard with a number of the car on it, and also another number whichdirects him to a file containing the original message governing themovements of this car; he has then got to go to the files and look upthe original message; after that, the necessary orders can be issued tothe switching department, or such other orders as called for may beproperly given, and the future movement of the car independently andexpeditiously directed. Perishable freight, Consignee, Destination, &c.,can be indicated on these rush and divert cards by appropriateindicators such as previously described.

After a car has left the jurisdiction of the yard, its card is taken outof the yard case and put in the storage case, which contains index cardsnumerically numbered in multiples of 10, thus 102030, &c. The cards arefiled in the storage case according to the number of the cars, and it ispossible to look up at a moments notice the record of any car which hasonce been in the yard.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent, isv 1. A system of tabulating cars and the like,which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered inconsecutive order corresponding with the terminal figures of the numbersof the cars to be recorded, and an initial index card having a num bercorresponding to the initial figure of the numbers of the cars to berecorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of thecars to be recorded, and said record cards'bearing suitable notation andbeing segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cardsaforesaid.

2. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a seriesof index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order correspondingwith the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded. andan initial index card having a number corresponding to the initialfigure of the num bers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numberedcorrespondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said recordcards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondinglywith the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and a key-card bearingsuitable notation corresponding with the notation on the record cards.

.3. A system of tabulating cars and the like which comprehends a seriesof index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order correspondingwith the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, andan initial index card having a number corresponding to the initialfigure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numberedcorrespondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said recordcards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondinglywith the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, a key card bearingsuitable notation corresponding with the notation on the record cards,and removable visible indices carried by certain of said record cards,said indices corresponding to notation on said key card. i

4. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a seriesof index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order correspondingwith the terminal fig ures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded,and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initialfigure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numberedcorrespondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said recordcards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondinglywith the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and removable visibleindicators on certain of said indicator cards representative of certaindesired data in connection with the cars.

5. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a seriesof index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order correspondingwith the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be record ed,and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initialfigure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numberedcorrespondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said recordcards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondinglywith the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and a key card arranged infront of said index cards and vertically ruled into columns, whichcolumns bear notation corresponding to the notation on said recordcards, and removable indicators for the purpose described arranged inline behind said columns and carried by said record cards.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. MULLER. FLORENCE M. DRISCOLL. RICHARD J. BARRY.

Witnesses:

S. H. NOURSE, FREDERICK E. MAYNARD.

